About Me

I am a lifelong student of military history with particular interest in the Battle of Antietam. I work for the federal government in Washington DC and have two young adult children who I love very much. I currently volunteer at Antietam and devote much time to the study of this battle and the Maryland Campaign. I enjoy collecting notable contemporary quotations by and about the men of Antietam. Since 2013 I have been conducting in depth research on the regular artillery companies of the Union Army and their leaders. I hope to turn this into a book on this subject in the future. My perspective comes from a 28-year career in the U.S. Army. Travels took me to World War II battlefields in Europe and the Pacific where American valor ended the tyranny of Nazism and Empire. But our country faced its own greatest challenge 80 years earlier during the Civil War. And it was the critical late summer of 1862, when Robert E. Lee launched the Maryland Campaign. It is an incredible story of drama, carnage, bravery, and missed opportunities that culminated around the fields and woodlots of peaceful Sharpsburg MD. So join me as I make this journey South from the North Woods.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

During the Maryland Campaign twenty-two of the Union Army’s
artillery batteries came from the Regular Army.Five of these were actually consolidations of two
batteries.Battery consolidations
occurred because of the difficulty in recruiting up to authorized strength.
Even when consolidated, the batteries submitted separate battery muster rolls
each month. That means that there are actually twenty-seven artillery
batteries muster reports to look at when studying the regular batteries at
Antietam.

These batteries were the core of the Army of the Potomac’s
artillery power and were found in every infantry corps, the cavalry division,
and the artillery reserve.As
originally envisioned by William Barry and Henry Hunt, the army’s first two artillery chiefs, the regulars formed the core of an infantry division’s
artillery complement.Their job
was to train the volunteer batteries in the performance of their duties. The plan was for the regular artillery battery
commander was also the division’s chief of artillery.The ratio was one regular to three volunteer batteries. This did not always work out in practice.

A Federal artillery battery was authorized one captain and four
first lieutenants.

Each of the regular army’s five artillery regiments were
represented during the Maryland Campaign.Four of these had been in existence since 1821.The Fifth Artillery was a new regiment
established in May of 1861.

In reviewing the list of battery commanding officers at Antietam,
one question becomes apparent.Where were all the captains?

The table below shows all of the batteries. It identifies the captain who commanded the battery according to the muster rolls for August 1862. The actual commander at the time follows in the next column.

Of the twenty seven
battery captains, six (Davis,
Schofield, Ricketts, Gibbon, Howe and Griffin) were brigadier generals of
volunteers serving in infantry commands.Three (Best Clarke, and
Getty) were Corps Artillery Chiefs; two
Ayres and Ransom were division artillery chiefs (though the information is
confusing on Ransom); Hays commanded
the Artillery Reserve; Piper was
detailed to the defenses of Washington; Thompson
to Cincinnati; three (Benson,
Hazzard, and Smead), and had been recently killed or mortally wounded and the muster rolls did not yet reflect this; Carlisle
was on sick leave; Platt was an
inspector general on the Sixth Corps staff. This left eight
(Graham, Tidball, Robertson, Gibson, Edwards, Clark, Ransom [again], and Weed) actually in command of their batteries.Dunbar Ransom is listed twice
commanding both Battery L, Third Artillery, and Battery C, Fifth Artillery.The note on Battery L’s muster
indicates that Ransom was Chief of Artilery for Meade’s division.

The bottom line is that there were a lot of very young
lieutenants commanding many of the regular batteries during the Maryland Campaign.Stay tuned.

[1] Jefferson C.
Davis was a brigadier general of volunteers and commanded a division in the
Army of the Cumberland. A sergeant in the Third Indiana Volunteers in the
Mexican War, Davis was commissioned into the First Artillery on June 17, 1848.
Not to be confused with the Confederate President, this Davis is famously known
for shooting and killing his superior officer, Maj. Gen. William
"Bull" Nelson in Louisville, Kentucky and after being slapped in the
face by Nelson. A shortage of competent generals saved Davis from a court
martial conviction.

[2] John
Schofield a future commanding general of the U.S. Army was a brigadier general
of volunteers and commanded the District of Missouri at the time of the Battle
of Antietam.

[3] James
Ricketts was a brigadier general of volunteers and commanded the Second
Division, First Corps.

[4] William
Graham was directly commissioned into the First Artillery on June 7, 1855.He may have benefited from the fact
that his father and namesake Lieutenant William M. Graham who commanded the 11th
Infantry Regiment was killed at Molino del Rey during the Mexican War.

[5] William Hays
was a staff lieutenant colonel and commanded the Artillery Reserve of the Army
of the Potomac.

[6] Edward Platt
was a staff lieutenant colonel and assistant inspector general of the Sixth
Corps.

[8] James
Thompson as Chief of Artillery, in defense of Cincinnati during rebel offensive
into Kentucky during September, 1862

[9] Henry Benson
was an enlisted artilleryman in the Second Artillery during the Mexican
War.He was commissioned into
the Second Artillery on January 26, 1849.Benson died August 11, 1862 of wounds received August 5, 1862 at
Malvern Hill

[10] Alexander
Piper who was Pope’s Chief of Artillery was now assigned as Assistant Inspector
of Artillery at Washington DC.

[11] Dunbar
Ransom was the Chief of Artillery of Meade’s Division and commanded Battery C,
5th U.S. Artillery.

[12] Francis
Clarke on detached duty as Chief of Artillery, Second Corps. He was promoted to
Major, Fifth Artillery on August 5, 1862.

[13] George
Hazzard died August 14, 1862 of wounds received at the Battle of White Oak
Swamp on June 30, 1862.

[14] John Gibbon
was a brigadier general of volunteers and commanded the Black Hat Brigade of
Doubleday’s division, First Corps.

[15] Campbell
had the staff rank of Captain-Staff Additional Aide de Camp

Saturday, July 20, 2013

My
research on the West Point officers who served at Antietam continues.Recently, I contacted the West Point
Library to see when they began recording images of the graduating classes.I learned that they began to do this in
1857.Unfortunately they do not
have the images for the Classes of 1858 or 1860.The Library copied the images of 53 officers from the
graduating classes of 1857, 1859, May 1861, June 1861, and 1862. I can’t be
certain but many of these are not on the internet as I have tried to google
some of these relatively unknown men and not obtained any results.

James H. Lord USMA 1862

One of these images is of James H. Lord of the Class of 1862. It is amazing to consider that this young man who graduated from the Academy on June 17, 1862 would earn a brevet promotion to First Lieutenant only fourteen days later at Malvern Hill. He would earn two more (including one for Antietam) before the end of the war. He probably looked very much like this image at Antietam.

A
great source of biographical information for these lesser known officers are
their obituary notices found in the Annual Reunion of the Association of
Graduates.When Lord died on
February 21, 1896 at the Presidio, his classmate and fellow Second Artillery
colleague John Calef penned the following tribute which appeared in the 1896 Annual Reunion.

Major
JAMES HENRY LORD was born at Honesdale, Pa., February 27th, 1840. After
attending school in his native town, he was, at the age of 14, sent to the
military school of General William H. ("Billy") Russell, at New
Haven, where he received his preparation for the United States Military Academy.
He entered the Academy on July 1st, 1857.[1]
Graduating in 1862, amidst the excitement of the Civil War, he was appointed to
the Second Artillery, and was sent immediately to active service with the Army
of the Potomac. Being assigned to Carlisle's Battery "E," Second
Artillery, (composed of 4-20 pounder Parrotts).[2]
He participated with this celebrated Battery under [First Lieutenant Samuel F.] Benjamin, in the following battles:
Second Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam,
Fredericksburg, and then accompanied the Ninth Army Corps to Vicksburg,
Mississippi, in the siege of which place his battery took part, as well as in
the capture of Jackson, the Capital of Mississippi. During these operations on
the Mississippi he contracted a fever accompanied by congestive chills, which
necessitated a change of climate, and after a sick leave, he was placed on
"mustering and disbursing duty" at Cincinnati and Boston until
February, 1865, when he joined Horse Battery "A," Second Artillery,
then serving with Davies' Brigade, Gregg's Cavalry Division in the siege of
Petersburg.

In
command of that Battery he participated in the final campaign of the War, being
engaged at Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks, Lisbon Centre, High Bridge,
Farmville, and lastly at Appomattox Court House. He then served as Aide-de-Camp
to General Crook, but returning to the Second Artillery, he accompanied it to
the Pacific Coast in September, 1865, and on May 1st, 1867, was appointed
Regimental Quartermaster, which he held till appointed Captain and Assistant
Quartermaster, April 24th, 1875. In this position he served as Chief
Quartermaster District of Tucson, Arizona, and Depot Quartermaster at Yuma,
Arizona, from June, 1875, to November, 1878. On duty at General Depot, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to August 1st, 1879; Post-Quartermaster at Fort Preble, Maine, to June 8th,
1880. Depot Quartermaster at Cheyenne to November 10th, 1885; on duty at
Jeffersonville Depot, Indiana to July 1st, 1886; Post-Quartermaster Governor's
Island, New York, and Assistant Quartermaster Division Atlantic, to August 3d,
1890; in charge of General Depot, San Francisco, California, to March 31st, 1893, and
retired from active service, September 6th, 1893.

He was
brevetted First Lieutenant, July 1st, 1862, for gallant and meritorious services
in the battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia; Captain, September 17th, 1862, for
gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Antietam, Maryland; and
Major, April 9th, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services in action at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia.

Major
Lord was an unique character. From the reveille of his military career till the
taps which signified its close, he ever displayed that cheerful quality of mind
and disposition which extended its influence to all around, and endeared him to
countless friends. His wonderful energy and fertility of resources were
displayed in every position to which he was called, and whether in organizing
an " outfit" for the use of the Commanding General on an inspecting
tour, or in planting trees for beautifying the Presidio Reservation, he gave
his personal attention to the details, which assured success.

During
the Civil War, he early made a reputation for coolness and intrepidity under
fire, and I recall the remark of his Battery Commander, Lieutenant (afterwards
Colonel) S. W. Benjamin, who, when speaking of the terrific fire the Battery ("E,"
Second Artillery,) was subjected to at the Second Bull Run, said: "Lord is
one of the coolest men under fire, I ever saw.”[3]

He was
also of an inventive turn of mind, and secured, I believe, patents for several
inventions. Ever loyal to his old friends, he was generosity itself, and many a
thorny path was smoothed by him. His was a very lovable nature, and in his
untimely demise, the service has lost an excellent officer and his friends have
experienced an irreparable loss.

[1]Lord
repeated his freshman year having been found deficient in English studies.

[2] Captain
Josiah M. Carlisle, Third Artillery (USMA 1845) commanded this battery through
the Battle of Malvern Hill.He was
relieved of command due to illness on August 2, 1862 and never returned to
front line service.Carlisle
retired on August 4, 1863 for disability and died on December 16, 1866.

[3] Benjamin
mentions Lord in his lengthy report on the Battle of Antietam stating that
Lieutenants Graves and Lord, "worked well and faithfully." (OR 19:1 page 436)

[4]Twenty Seventh Annual Reunion of the Association
of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, June 11,
1896 page 122